New Survey: Takes 25 Hours A Week To See Social Media Benefits. Stop Dabbling With Social Media.

My friend Maisha Walker published a new survey report, released today, Ditch Digital Dabbling: How Small Businesses and Nonprofits Can Master Online Marketing, revealed the “magic number” of hours required to make social media marketing a success. According to the report, it takes a minimum of 25 hours per week to see worthwhile results from social media efforts – insight that has long eluded small businesses and nonprofits struggling to find the right market mix in today’s digital economy.

Now available at www.DitchDigitalDabbling.com, the report aggregates responses from small businesses and nonprofits in many sectors including women-owned, minority-owned, socially responsible.

A joint research project by Message Medium and Ventureneer, the Ditch Digital Dabbling survey definitively outlines the online marketing tactics that work best and highlights new revelations, including the fact that “Power Users” rate only 5 social media tools as very effective.

“While many small businesses and nonprofits market online, very few have a firm grasp of the strategies, tactics, and tools to do it well in spite of the overload of how-to information,” explained Maisha Walker, president of Message Medium. “Rather than adding to the noise, we wanted to share real-world insights and success stories, gleaned from their peers who were facing similar challenges.”

By showing which online marketing and social media strategies have and haven’t worked, the survey results act as a research-driven road-map to saving small businesses time and money when putting together their own marketing plans.

“The survey confirms that you can’t get the best results from online marketing programs unless you know how to effectively measure whether you’re achieving your goals or not,” explained Geri Stengel, president of Ventureneer. “While we found that a majority of companies attempt to measure performance, they don’t understand what actually works. The concept of trying, measuring, and tweaking — almost in real time — is new, but it’s as critical to effectiveness as is time spent.”

The Ditch Digital Dabbling Executive Summary is now available for free download. For the Executive Summary or the comprehensive report with in-depth case studies, detailed survey figures, and more, visit www.DitchDigitalDabbling.com.